A RAISIN IN THE SUN

US, 1960, 130 minutes, Black and white.
Sidney Poitier, Claudia Mc Neill, Ruby Dee, Diana Sands.
Directed by Daniel Petrie.

A Raisin in the Sun is an excellent film. It touches on 20th century African American problems with black sensibility and the literary art of playwright, Lorraine Hansberry, who wrote the screenplay from her original play.

The film is about the Younger family - poverty, tensions, ambitions and crises. Walter Lee Younger (Sidney Po1t1er) is a middle-aged chauffeur who sees that he has little possibility of achieving any ambition at life. This gnaws at him and he is prepared to gamble recklessly for the sake of some achievement. Wife (Ruby Dee) is the black housewife, patient because so much of love has been lost, but too weary to help her husband in his needs. College educated sister (Diana Sands) is idealistic and mouthes her belief in ancient African heritage, but she is ambitious to be a doctor.

Over them all towers the huge figure of the widow-matriarch (Claudia Mc Neill), old-fashioned, stern, uneducated, but loving and trying to do her best slowly and according to principle. On the level of human relationships of any race, the drama rings true. It is the more moving when set amongst such American problems as poverty, housing, prejudice and the humiliation of human beings.

Acting is superb, Claudia McNeill? making a tremendous impression. The action is confined at times (the influence of the play), but this is made up for by intensely dramatic dialogue which cuts to the bone and communicates some of the deepest human emotions.

1. Did the film suffer by giving the impression that it was still close to its stage origins? Critics have suggested that, while the action is confined, the strength of the dialogue and the emotions presented absorb an audience. How true is this?

2. Do you agree that the story of the family itself transcended race questions and that the film is a moving presentation of basic problems of family, communication and ambitions?

3. A likeable family? Comment on each of the characters, detailing their virtues as well as their shortcomings.

4. How did the film visually reveal the family to us in the opening sequences - waking-up, the use of the bathroom, the son needing 80 cents for school? Were these first impressions borne out?

5. What was wrong with Walter Younger? Why was he frustrated? Did his wife help him? Understand him? Did his mother understand him? Why did he want to make a big financial deal?

6. What was wrong with his wife? Why was she tired? Why did she even think of having an abortion?

7. Was the sister selfish? How did the generation gap show? Why was she so idealistic? How did John, the Nigerian, help her to understand herself?

8. The mother? Was she loving? Sensible? Did you agree with her policy? How did the plant express her? Note the scenes with her daughter (and God), with John, with Walter, especially in the bar.

9. Why did the wife long to leave their house? Was it poor?

10. Discuss the sequence of the move to the new house - the joy and then the welcoming committee?

11. Why did the mother give Walter the money? Was his argument that he needed to move into the unknown, as she had moved from the south, a good argument?

12. Were you moved when you discovered they had lost all the money? Why?

13. What made a man of Walter? Why was he less a man when he wanted to get money out of the white Committee?

14. Were you satisfied with the ending? Do you think you learnt much about life and people from this film?